Focus on Charles Taze Russell

1914

CHRONOLOGY–October, 1914, Re the High Calling. Q89:1:: QUESTION (1914)–1–Dear Brother Russell, in the event of October of this year coming and going, and you should still be in the flesh, do you think that that would be an indication that the Lord had left you out of the High Calling class?

ANSWER–I would not. Our understanding, dear friends, respecting October, 1914, is that to the best of our judgment–judgment of the Scripture testimony, of how to read the chronology furnished in the Bible, to the best of our judgment the year 1914, the month of October, will mark the end of the Gentile times.

Now we do not know that it will be so, because there is a difference between faith and knowledge. Now we know in part on any subject more or less distinctly seen some have more accurate judgment and some less. But God does not propose that His people in the present time shall walk by sight, but by faith. That is His intention. He has not, therefore, given us on some lines that which will be positive evidence so that we may walk by sight. As for instance, He has told us about the “crown of life” laid up for us, but you have never seen it except by the eye of faith, and yet that is the very thing you are running for and spending your life for, and unless you have full faith in that crown of life, you would not be laying down your present life and seeking to live in the future.

In the matter of chronology, we remind you of what we said in the Studies in the Scriptures. It is not a thing that can positively be known. We pointed out in the Second Volume that the chronology there set forth is the best, and most accurate, according to the Bible, that we are able to determine; but we also pointed out that the Bible does not pretend to give the day the week and the month chronologically: that it gives certain periods in a lump sum, and therefore there will be always occasion to exercise faith in {Page Q90} connection with the chronology. We told you that in our judgment this chronology was correct, though it was admitted to be fallible and possibly might vary for a year or a few years; but that it seemed to be corroborated and made strong by the fact that certain prophecies of the Bible seemed to intermesh and interlock with it and it made the chronology of the Bible appear to us that He meant it to be used, and I am using it in my faith and I am acting according to this chronology. I believed these prophetic parts fitted into it and that it is connected with all of God’s doings. There seems to be a fitness all the way down and I cannot see how they could so fit together unless God intended it, and if so, these things were for our admonition, for our instruction. So I placed upon each reader the responsibility for thinking the matter out for himself. We have as much in the Bible as we ever had, and I merely pointed out how the matter looked to me, and asked you to use your judgment.

I think the same about the chronology that I ever thought. I see no place where there is a flaw. I would not know where to put my finger on any item there and say, that is a mistake. I do not know any such place. It all looks to me as it did thirty years ago.

Why then, Brother Russell, here it is 1914. And have all of the things occurred that you thought would occur by this time?

No, that is true. They have not all occurred.

How do you account for that?

Perhaps I was expecting more to occur than I should have expected. I see nothing whatever to indicate to me that the chronology is in error, that our expectations are wrong. I am more convinced every day that I live that the great Divine Plan of the Ages is the only plan that could be a Divine plan; that no human being could possibly have concocted that plan. When you compare the Divine plan in the Bible with all of the human plans and theories how simple and absurd all human theories are.

Think of the thoughts given us about the doctrine of election. I need not single out any one. Take all of the creeds that have come down to us, and there is not an intelligent man in the world that would think of defending any of those creeds. They are all too absurd for the light of our day, and when we hold up the Plan of the Ages everything else on earth is put to shame and wants to get into the dark. Whether they like it or not it is so. The Great Plan shows God’s knowledge of the affairs of the universe; God provided a “Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” God permitted the sin, the fall. Why He permitted sin, His intention respecting the fallen ones that they should be redeemed in due time, the time or restitution, that it should come in due time, and in the interim God would select a Church to be joint heirs with Christ in the kingdom work, is all shown in this Great Plan. You cannot make me believe that any human being could make such a plan. Sometimes I see such futile efforts of humanity for making plans. For more than 6,000 years men have been making plans for God, and they are all silly, and the part that is not silly is devilish. {Page Q91} So then, nothing that could happen in 1914, or any other time, would change my mind one whit in respect to the great Divine Plan of the Ages.

What about it being near the time when the Kingdom is to be established?

I think, so many times, that every added indication shows that it is near, even at the doors, that I cannot doubt, whether the culmination comes in 1914, 1915 or some other year, it is near, even at the doors. When I see from the Bible the record given us, as I understand, as we have presented and you have read that we have been in the harvest time ever since 1874, that this is the harvesting of Christendom, I am astonished at how true every feature of that work seems to be, of the demonstration that we are in the harvest and the work is in progress. We have had forty years of this harvest, or will have in a few months. What have we seen? According to the Bible we have understood that during this harvest time the great Chief Reaper was to be present, not known to the world but to His sheep the knowledge of His presence coming out gradually from one to another and it has been so. The parousia, the presence, unknown to the world that Jesus foretold when he told us that his coming would be “as a thief in the night,” of which the Apostles said the world would all be taken by surprise and that they would not know what hour he would come, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief” because ye are children of the light and of the day, therefore God would make known to you enough of the light on this subject to give you the information that we might not be in darkness with the world respecting the presence of the Lord. What are some of the evidences?

I answer Jesus himself told us what would be the special work He would do at His second coming and before He was manifest as present to the world. Before He would manifest himself to the world He would be present and do a work for the Church and that would be this. He told of the parable of the talents and the pounds, how He gave certain pounds and talents to His servants and went into a far country, Heaven itself, to be invested with kingly power and authority On His return He would first call His own servants and reckon with them. Has it been so during the past forty years? Yes. There has been a reckoning with the Lord’s servants and a giving of account of how they have used the talents and blessings and opportunities that have come to them, and in proportion as they were found to have received and used these well in that same proportion they have entered into the joys of their Lord. I am not wishing to say that you and I have entered fully into the joys of our Lord yet. No, there is more. That part where we shall have rulership over two cities, five cities, etc., that will be entering into the joys to the full extent. All who have been found faithful in this harvest, when the Master has called their name and they have been found faithful to the talents they did have, will be lifted up and given the high reward of being joint heirs with Christ. These are now learning to know of the love of God which passeth understanding. This has been going on for forty years. {Page Q92}

The Bible says that at the time there would be such a blessing on the loyal ones of the Lord, there would be another class–a nominal class–with whom things would not be so favorable, and I believe it has been so; and I believe that is what the Bible calls a spewing out of the mouth by the Lord in connection with certain persons who have not been loyal to Him; and that work of separation has been going on as a separation of the wheat from the tares, the tares to be bound in bundles for the burning.

I will not attempt to go into details, merely touching points known to every one of us, and I am doing this merely to stimulate your pure minds by way of remembrance, rather than to say anything new. We have said all this in print and you have read it before. We are merely reminding you of it. I have believed in all of these things for over forty years and I still do.

What is the next step in order? The Bible tells us it will be the Epiphania of Jesus. What is that? The shining forth. What is to be revealed? The one whom we recognize already. We already recognize the presence of our Savior the present One, the Great Reaper, but the world knows Him not. Just as it was at the first advent. Jesus was present but the Jews knew Him not. John the Baptist said of Him, “There standeth One among you whom you know not.” We believe there has been One with us during these forty years here, the Present One, the King, God has appointed, and the world knows Him not. He is not revealed unto them. He has come “as a thief in the night,” getting the bride class ready, gathering out a people peculiar to himself. He is gathering the jewels, seeing to the finishing touches of their polishing, getting them ready to be set in the great diadem in the hand of God. God is getting ready these jewels, the mounting of these jewels in the diadem frame will be the installation of the Church in the Kingdom. Their change in the resurrection which we are hoping will come to the Lord’s people soon and in which we are hoping to participate.

Now further, we have seen and been expecting the Jews would be going back to Palestine, and at the beginning of this harvest time no Jew in the world had thought of going back to Palestine. They were all looking to their own chronology which has a difference of several hundred years from ours. There is nothing to be expected until the end of the 6,000 years. I think that is 350 years yet according to their chronology. In the last twenty years the Jews have been waking up, paying no attention to their chronology and hoping for the restoration to Israel and hoping God would grant them a national existence again–the very thing that according to the Bible is now due to be accomplished. We expect a larger enlightening of those, posssibly, than we have seen. We thought more Jews would go than have, but we were not wise enough to know how many were going. What we do see is a sufficient number to fulfill God’s word–a gathering of some of the most earnest Jews from all parts of the world. Not always the richest Jews, but it is said some eighteen millionaires are living at Jerusalem now. God tells how the Jews will be regathered there, with considerable wealth at about this time, possibly not this year or for several years, but all of these things are {Page Q93} coming our way and my faith in the ultimate carrying out of all these things is the same that it ever was.

There is another matter. What is going to slip past in October, 1914? I suppose you think the Gentile times won’t end there?

I do not know anything of the kind.

I do not know but what they will.

You do not know.

Nobody else can say they will not end there. Let us wait and see.

What is meant by that anyway? says one. I will grant, dear friends, perhaps three-fourths of this audience know exactly what is meant by the term “Gentile Times” now as well as after I give a more detailed explanation but for the sake of the one-fourth I will say God in times past had given a kingdom to Israel and it was typical of Messiah’s kingdom that was first of all recognized in King David, and we read of him that he sat upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord. Now lots of other kingdoms today claim to be the kingdoms of the Lord, but they make the claim without Bible authority. David sat on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord, and God said of the fruit of his loins there should be some one to sit on that throne forever, that He would never lack some one to sit on that throne–God’s throne. And He never has. Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord in the room of his father David. Then followed Solomon’s sons down to the last king, whose name was Zedekiah, and he was the last of David’s line to sit on the throne of Judah over the people of God as representative of God’s kingdom. What then occurred? In his day God said to him, “O thou profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end. Thus said the Lord God; Remove the diadem and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.” Do you get the thought? There was the typical kingdom continued from David to Zedekiah and then taken away from the earth never to be replaced until the Messiah should replace it as God’s true kingdom at his reign. And it has been so. There is no failure of that prophecy. Have the Jews not had a king since? None that God recognized. What about Maccabean, Herod, etc. The Maccabeans did not come from the line God recognized, and the Herod family were not only not of David’s line, but were not Jews at all. They were the sons of Esau. It has been true that from Zedekiah down to the present time, there has been no king of David’s line, and the next one to reign is the Messiah. What of that? That time from which their kingdom was broken off until Messiah would come, we believe was mentioned when He told them through Moses about how He would overturn them and punish them seven times–seven years. Not seven literal years, because they werc punished much more than seven literal years, many times more. What does this mean? Seven times as much as they ought to be punished? No. What does it mean, then? We believe that he meant that God would punish them seven symbolic years for their sins. How much is that? {Page Q94}

According to the Bible a symbolic year is 360 years–360 days to a lunar year and a day representing a year, so a symbolic year is 360 years. What of that? Seven times would be seven times 360 years, or 2,520 years. Where would they begin? They would begin the very time that God took away the crown and the diadem from Zedekiah. Where would they measure to? To the time when Messiah would take His kingdom. When will that be? To our understanding, my dear brothers and sisters, Zedekiah lost his crown in the year 606 B. C., and from here–606 B.C.– measuring down 2,520 years to the best of our knowledge and belief, will expire with October, 1914. Now if anybody else can change that, let him do so. We have not found anyone that can. We do not say it is infallibly true, but we have not found anything wrong with it but we see that the right time for Him to receive His authority in the world will be October, 1914. Perhaps that is wrong, but I do not think it is far wrong. It does not seem probable. Those were years of Jewish punishment for their sins. They did not relate to the other punishment and how they got their great punishment, had their national existence taken away when they rejected Jesus, and they have had no national existence since the year A. D. 70. And they will have none until the day in which they will delight to say, “‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord Jehovah.” They will be glad to see him. How do you know they will? The Bible says so. The Bible says He is going to pour upon them fire, symbolical for trouble. I will pour upon them the spirit of prayer and of supplication, and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. They will look with the eye of their understanding just as you have. Have you seen Him? Yes. Have you looked at Jesus? Yes. May not the Jew also? Yes, and he is about to do so, we believe. We understand one of the first things of the new order of things will be pouring upon Israel their share of the blessings and their eyes will be opened to recognize Him whom they rejected more than eighteen hundred years ago.

Looking from another standpoint, Jesus said in prophesy that “Jerusalem would continue to be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.” Was it trodden down in his day? Yes. Were they not governed from Rome? Surely. Now, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, does not that imply that there are certain times of the Gentiles? Yes. What does that mean? Did God give the world over to the Gentiles for a time? Yes. How do you know? Jesus said so, and you can go to the Bible and find the proof. God took the kingdom from Zedekiah and the crown was taken from him. Then God recognized the Gentile governments for the first time. Prove that. That is easy enough.

You remember Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, when exercising his power in overthrowing Zedekiah and utterly destroying Jerusalem, taking many of them captives, was the beginning of that period–the overturning of the crown–and to show us clearly where the authority went according to the divine view. God gave a vision and an interpretation of that. I will remind you of it. Eighteen years before Zedekiah’s {Page Q95} kingdom was taken from him, a young man of a noble family of the Jews was taken prisoner with others, and that young man was Daniel; and he was put among the wise men of the land of Babylon to have special education and privileges, and he had been in Babylon for eighteen years. And when this time came represented in the dream, the king sent out word that he had had a dream, and called upon all of the wise men to come in the morning, and when they came in, he told them that he had had a dream the night before and it was very interesting and puzzling, and one of the most puzzling things was that the dream had gone from him and he could not remember it, and he told them that he wanted them to tell him the dream and what it meant. The wise men told him that no king had ever asked such a thing of his wise men before, that if he would tell them his dream they would give him some kind of an interpretation of it. The king answered them that he could see very easily how a man could make up some kind of an interpretation of it if they had the dream told them; but that if they had the divine power they could tell the dream and the interpretation also. “If you cannot do that I will have you put to death as imposters, letting on that you have connection with the gods which you have not.” They were frightened, but when Daniel heard of it (it seems he was not with them before the king) he said to the king, “Why is this haste? If you will allow a certain time to be granted, there is One who is able to answer the king and give him the dream and the interpretation. That is the God whom I, Daniel, serve. “Very well, time will be granted.” And at the time appointed, Daniel came before the king and told him the dream, and you remember it well.

“Thou, O King, sawest, and, behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. His legs of iron, and his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” “You have got it right,” said the king. “That is exactly the dream. Now tell the interpretation.” And Daniel proceeded to say, “The God of Heaven hath revealed unto the king this thing.” That was from God. “Thou art this head of gold.” A king over kings. You are the first one represented in this great image. This represents all of the Gentile governments that would ever bear rule over the earth. That represents the time between when God took away the typical kingdom and the time He would restore it. The description shows us that the head was the kingdom of Babylon, the next was Medo- Persia, the next Grecia, and the next the Roman Empire, represented by the legs, and the next in order was the holy Roman Empire, represented by the feet of iron and clay. The iron in the feet, by the way we understand, {Page Q96} represents the powers of the state. The Roman Empire still exists, not in the form it was first recognized, but in the fact that it was a combination of church and state, and the two uniting sought to rule over all Europe and the world, and generally there has been a disintegration between the iron (civil) and the clay (ecclesiastical) powers. Some places the iron is more prominent and some places the clay. The iron, which has the strength, is usually the most prominent. The clay, representing ecclesiasticism in the mixture, corresponds, shall I say, is the counterfeit of the stone? In other words, this power in combination with the civil power claims it was God’s kingdom, claims that instead of smiting the image and destroying it, the stone itself had taken on the divine character and was ruling.

The great kings of Europe today, practically all of them, claim that they are God’s kingdom, and yet that they are civil powers. On the one hand they are currying power with earthly kings, and on the other hand they claim to be God’s kingdom. Such kingdoms claim that the Emperor Joseph is reigning there by divine authority, also Emperor William, Czar of Russia, etc.

We are living down in the days of these kings represented by the feet and more particularly the toes. What is the next thing in order?

According to the Bible, the next thing is that the whole image is going to be broken in fragments, and “become the chaff of the summer threshing floor,” and be completely removed. The Bible says, Choose whom you will serve and whom you will believe. I think we have learned to put our confidence in the Word of God. We believe what it tells us, no matter what it says to anybody else.

The Word of God tells us that the next thing in order is for the stone to smite the image, and after the smiting the stone will fill the whole earth. I believe just what the Bible says. It need not make any difference to you what I believe, either, but what the Bible says. We are going by God’s Word and not by each other. We have had bad enough experience in trying to follow men. We are not following men, but God. These things are sure. The Lord said so. No matter whether the smiting of the image will occur in 1915 or not. God only knows; but according to the best knowledge I have of the Bible, that will be the time when we shall expect that the image will be smitten in the feet. Why say 1915 and not 1914? Because these Gentile governments, represented by the image Babylon, Medo-Persia, etc., were given their places to occupy for a certain specific time, between the time Zedekiah’s crown was taken away and the time when Messiah’s Kingdom would be established. All of that time they must have. It is like a lease given to you. If you received a lease expiring October, 1914, why then, just as soon as the lease would expire it would be time for you to get out of the premises. Suppose you did not know that your lease had expired; it was long and you had forgotten it was for October 1st, 1914. You were building, planting and fixing up the house as though you were expecting to stay there forever. Now your lease has run out; what would you then expect? You would receive some notice to get out. Suppose you did not go? You would be put out. {Page Q97}

What we see about the Gentile Times is that God gave a lease to the Gentiles when He took away the kingdom from the typical Israel. He said to the Gentiles, I am going to give you the lease or opportunity in which you may take hold of the affairs of the world and see if you can bring to the world such things as make for peace.

We want to say here, some of these Gentile nations have done wonderfully well. I congratulate many of them on having done splendidly, all we could expect, all beastly governments, they have done the best they could. Who could bring perfection out of an impure thing? What do we think today as we are nearing the close of the Gentile Times, the 2,520 years, beginning 606 B. C. and expiring October, 1914? Have they brought in everlasting righteousness? No. Have they brought happiness to the world? No. Have they brought that which will be the desire of all nations? No. What must we hope for? What God has declared He will bring, and Messiah’s Kingdom will bring to mankind “the desire of all nations.”

Are any of the nations getting ready to move? I have not heard of it. Don’t they know the Gentile Times have expired? I guess not. The truth has gone all over the world? Yes, but it is foolishness to them. If the emperor heard anything about the times of the Gentiles he would laugh. So would the king of England, or the czar of Russia. Even the Emperor William would have a good laugh at the thought that God had anything to do with a better government than his. How could God get a better one? It would naturally occur to these gentlemen that God could hardly choose a better king or ruler than is now in office. All of these men are imperfect and are all laboring under more or less of a delusion and the false doctrines of the past, and are so bewildered and weak they could not do better if they did not know how.

Their lease will expire and God who gave it to them will take back things in His control and set up the Kingdom in the hands of the Messiah that Jesus taught us to pray for, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

What do you expect, then, Brother Russell, in October, 1914? I expect October will come and the kings of the earth –the Gentiles–will not know that their lease is expired. What then? A thunder clap out of a clear sky, that will begin to show these kings that a new Ruler is taking possession of the world. How will it come? I do not know the particulars. I have merely the outline. The first thing in order will be the manifestation of God’s kingdom. How? The revealment, the making known. What do you mean? The Epiphania. He has been here and is to continue a thousand years. His parousia will not end in this forty years.

None others are made aware of these things yet. “Ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.”

Next in order will be (the apokalupsis) the revealment. How will that be? “I have my idea,” some one says. “I think that He will come and will sit on the circle of the Heaven and every eye will look up and all fall down and weep and howl.” Not a bit of it. I think the Bible way of telling that matter is this way, dear friends: “He shall be {Page Q98} revealed in flaming fire taking vengeance.” What is that? A great system of judgments will begin at that time. Flaming fire, outward manifestation of judgment. Why did you say fire? Because the Bible uses that as a symbolical expression just as He said the fiery trials which are to try you, and the gold is being prepared by fire. It is said of the world, not the Church, “He shall be revealed in flaming fire taking vengeance.” That will be after October, 1914? Yes. How long will it take? I do not know. Have you any guess? Guesses are very dangerous things, and if I will do any guessing I will give you the reason why I guess. In this case we have seen the parallel in the ending of the Jewish age. The city was destroyed in A. D. 70. The ending of the Gospel Age and the baptism of trouble will come, the elements will melt with fervent heat, the capitalistic elements and all, the whole world will become like a furnace, every man’s hand against his neighbor. That is the Bible description of it. The fire will come on the men in a natural way. It is their own fire that they built. It is because they are not living up to their grant. The Bible indicatcs that this condition would have come long ago if God had not held it back. When the right time comes God will no longer hold the four winds back, and the conflagration will be thorough, and swift, and terrible. Jesus said, speaking of that time, “Unless those days be shortened no flesh shall be saved. But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

What about the elect’s sakes? What about them? The elect are going to set up the Kingdom and stop that. They will interfere and bring order out of confusion.

How long did it take for the trouble that came upon the Jews to destroy them? About one year. After the forty years are ended, what might be expected here? Perhaps one year here might be enough of this trouble. God only knows. We are merely offering an idea. So I will expect 1915 will be a very severe year.

Where will the Church be then? Part of the question here. I am giving a liberal interpretation of this question and answer at the same time a half dozen other questions that will be asked. What about the Church? I do not know. I can only guess, and as I said before, guesses are very unsafe. Our supposition would be what we have always understood that when He would appear, when He would be manifest in the flaming fire, we would appear with Him. That would imply that we would be gone from here.

Another Scripture says, “Watch, that ye may be able to escape these things.” That implies that we shall be gone, we think. It is implication. We are not sure. We would naturally suppose that the Church gathering would be before the end or by the end of the Gentile Times, but we are not certain. We call your attention to one of the Psalms and the statement therein made. “Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand. To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishment upon the people. To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgments written: This honor have all the saints.” {Page Q99}

We pointed out in a recent Tower, dear friends, some of these things that seem to imply that the saints shall enter into some kind of glory this side the veil. We are not sure. We do not wish to prophesy. We are merely trying to read a prophecy. Our thought has always been that we would have nothing to do with the judging of the world until we had passed beyond the veil; but this seems to imply that some of the work would be done this side, because the bed seems to represent ease, the sword the Bible which is the Word of God. We say to ourselves while we might have the high sounding praise of God in our mouths on the other side of the veil, we would not need to be on the bed of rest or have the sword of the Spirit. On the other side we will have something more perfect. These are for use here under present conditions.

Therefore, there is something in that Psalm which seems to me to say the reward referred to may be here. What of it? Apparently the next verse says they are to share with all the saints in the execution of the judgments written. What would that mean? It might seem that some of God’s people might remain on this side of the veil, while others would be on the other side, and the two were one complete body acceptable to the Lord and might jointly engage in some work, they there and we here. There is a thought we might take. There is a possibility of it, and I am merely keeping my eye of faith and understanding open to see. I am not saying it is so, but we are in a place where we do not know. Our faith is strong, but whether all of our expectations in respect to the changes will be fulfilled by October 1st, or a year afterwards, I do not know, but whatever is God’s will for you, is your will, I trust. Whatever is God’s will for me, is my will; and if God has something beyond what I had thought, I will be very glad to have His will be done. Aren’t you? I am sure you are.

I understand there are some of the dear friends at the Convention whose faith is shaky and they feel like selling out. I would like to find them. How much do you want for what you have gotten? Count up all you have received. What will you take for it? Say the word. Will you take $1,000.00?

(From the audience.) No.

Will you take $1,000,000.00? No.

Will you take the whole world? No, no. Y

ou have a great bargain anyhow. Whatever comes you have a good bargain anyway. You are laying hold upon and appreciating what Jesus told us about the pearl of great price– a priceless pearl. Sell everything you have to obtain this pearl. You sold out your own will once and you have nothing to say whether God’s plan is October, 1914, or 1940. It is none of your business. You gave all to the Lord. It is His.

Content whatever lot I see,

Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

What Pastor Russell Said, Question 89:1

For some comments by Bible Students concerning 1914, see:

http://www.heraldmag.org/archives/1968_4.htm#_Toc31128081

Page last updated: October 8, 2008.